Formnext Chicago names first exhibitors for 2025 debut
October 12, 2022
The organisers of Formnext Chicago – Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH, the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), and Gardner Business Media (GBM) – have announced that they have secured Letters of Intent (LoI) from twenty companies to exhibit at Formnext Chicago, which is scheduled to take place April 8-10, 2025, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Thus far, confirmed exhibitors include EOS, Desktop Metal, Autodesk, HP, Zeiss, Mazak, Markforged, 3DEO, 3D Systems, Oqton, Baker Industries, Dyndrite, Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies, Massivit 3D, nTopology, Velo3D, Carpenter Technology, Trumpf, Ingersoll Machine Tools, and America Makes.
“Formnext Chicago will truly capture the entire spectrum of AM-related technologies, creating a unique experience at a familiar destination,” stated Douglas K Woods, president, AMT. “The initial exhibiting companies represent an additive value chain that starts with materials, moves through design and control software, production and post-production equipment, service providers, and metrology.”
Rick Kline Jr, president of GBM, added, “Our team had direct conversations with many of the top additive suppliers in the world at IMTS. And the feedback we received across the board was extremely positive. People are excited about the breadth and depth of audience reach and technical understanding that our three organisations [Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH, AMT, and GBM] can bring together.”
Formnext is recognised as the premier industrial Additive Manufacturing trade show. The 2019 event featured 852 exhibitors and attracted 34,532 visitors; the November 2022 show has over 760 registered exhibitors. Formnext Chicago resulted when Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH, the organisers of Formnext, cooperated with AMT and Gardner Business Media, to create a partnership for the Additive Manufacturing – and manufacturing industry as a whole – in North America.
Glynn Fletcher, president of EOS North America, stated, “EOS has been engaged with both Formnext, AMT, and GBM for many years. The combined strengths of these three organisations brings exceptional value to the Additive Manufacturing industry and stimulates further peer-to-peer engagement.”
Douglas K Woods added, “With the AM show experience of Formnext, the manufacturing audience brought by AMT and IMTS, and the conference technology and media resources from GBM, we have created the most complete experience for those who want to invest in innovative capital AM technology.”
Petra Haarburger, president, board of management of Mesago Messe Frankfurt, Germany, stated, “The group also invites other organisations to participate in Formnext Chicago, as the goal is to build a coalition of leaders with broad appeal to the additive and manufacturing communities. In addition to Formnext Chicago in 2025, the partnership has launched the Formnext Forum Austin (Aug. 28-30, 2023) and the Formnext Forum, co-located at IMTS 2024.”
The forums are intended to offer intimate and immersive learning experiences for attendees and are built around a conference schedule with an emphasis on sharing ideas and technology advancements in production Additive Manufacturing. Woods notes that there are 12 million people directly connected to the manufacturing industry in the US.
“As a still-evolving industry, much of the industrial manufacturing community is just beginning to explore and fully understand the production benefits of AM,” Woods said. “The US-based Formnext events create more opportunities for jobs shops, OEMs, startups, and service providers. Formnext Chicago will expose them to different parts of the supply chain and different parts of the innovation cycle so that they can learn how to apply AM tech to their existing business and create new opportunities.”
In support of bringing Formnext to the United States, a series of Formnext Forums will be held over the next two years. The first is planned for August 28-30, 2023, in Austin, Texas.
